2x1 does not equal 1x2
by bubblysage
Summary: Duo was bored. A bored Duo never bode well for anyone. Was it too much to ask for something different? Well, the universe decided two time-traveling strangers just might spice things up. [Rated mature for gun display and minor mentions of violence]


_INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!_

Warning sirens blared throughout the mansion's overhead speakers. Despite the incessant buzzing which was utterly deafening, Duo Maxwell smiled gleefully. It had been a while since they last had a break-in if one didn't count the pranks Duo regularly pulled—like when he broke into the control room just to broadcast a video of Wufei dancing.

Eager to see who had the audacity, not to mention skill, to successfully break into one of Quatre's mansions, Duo rushed towards the main entranceway where a few Maguanacs were huddled in a loose circle.

"—Imad saw lights flickering on and off from a window on the third floor—"

"—no one was supposed to be there… sounded the alarm—"

As bits and pieces of the conversation floated to his ears, Duo slowed down his pace and ducked out of sight. It seemed the alarm was manually triggered by someone who saw something suspicious. Duo frowned; disappointed that there might not be actual intruders. Frustrated with how the evening was turning out, he moved to leave when he heard a commotion.

"—room is locked… no sounds—"

"—getting the master keys from Rashid—"

Duo interpreted the guards' ragged breathing as a sign that the situation may, in fact, be more serious than it first sounded. He decided to check the situation for himself; he pivoted and ran towards the stairway leading to the third floor. Quatre's mansion can be a maze sometimes with its numerous rooms and passageways, but contrary to his jokester personality, Duo's keen sense of direction is at par with the best agents at Preventers, perhaps even more so. He quickly deduced, based on his knowledge of the mansion's outer perimeter, the window that triggered the ground staff to sound the alarm. He turned a corner and padded quietly into the hallway, the darkness completely hiding his entire presence save for the sliver of gold that would flash every now and then.

"That braid would get you killed one day." A hushed voice whispered in the darkness.

Duo grinned. "Aww Hee-chan, I knew you always cared." He knew that barb always irked Heero's Japanese origins; he tried to keep his voice low, but he couldn't resist teasing the other.

Heero Yuy grunted but did not say anything further. He knew that if the other really didn't want to be seen, Heero wouldn't have been able to spot him so easily. Duo was, after all, a master of stealth. It irked him that Duo was baiting him to notice. Arms crossed against his chest, he jerked his head towards the door in front of him. "Took you long enough to get here."

With a low chuckle, Duo crouched down in front of the door and proceeded to pick the lock.

"Quatre would flay you for leaving scratch marks."

"Rich boy can definitely afford another knob, a whole door even."

Safe in the knowledge that Duo won't see him, Heero allowed himself a small smile but did not voice his agreement; the blonde American certainly didn't need the encouragement. After a few seconds, he heard the tell-tale popping sound that indicated Duo's success; Heero pushed off the wall.

Duo's hands remained on the doorknob, and Heero knew the other was waiting for his signal to proceed. Heero was suddenly hit with a pang of nostalgia and realized he had not done a mission with Duo in a long time. Carefully, he retrieved the gun tucked in the back of his shorts and gave Duo a slight nod. The door swung inward slowly; the room was equally as dark as the hallway they were in.

As his eyes adjusted, Duo's gaze quickly swept the inside of the room. It appeared empty to the untrained eye, but Duo could see traces of a scuffle, which indicated that the room had indeed been broken in. Heero quickly made his way inside and crossed the length of the room all the way to the window on the far end. Careful not to draw attention to himself, he peeked outside to ascertain that they were in the right room.

Still in a crouched position, Duo made his way lithely towards the huge armoire set against the far wall. Heero noticed him and followed his movements with his eyes. Duo stopped just in front of the armoire, then he turned towards Heero and with his index finger, motioned towards the armoire. Heero nodded instantly and thumbed off the safety lock of his gun as he crept closer.

Duo stood, careful not to make any sound. He grabbed the handles and, after a cursory glance towards Heero, yanked it open. As the door swung outward, Heero quickly aimed his gun straight at the now-opened armoire. Duo mimicked this action a few seconds later.

Two figures huddled in the armoire's cramped space jerked upright, faces ashen and eyes wide at the sight of the guns pointed at them. They looked quite young and wore strange clothing, though something nagged at the back of Duo's mind as if he forgot something. He lowered his gun and tried to think about why their strange clothing seemed familiar to him.

From the corner of his eye, Heero saw Duo relax his stance. He frowned and mentally reminded himself to scold Duo later. Heero kept his gun trained at the intruders. He'd been in enough situations in the past not to let his guard down based merely on the appearance of others; after all, he was barely out of his teens when he participated in the war. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

One of the intruders, a boy with light brown hair and a pair of dark-rimmed glasses perched on a pert nose, opened his mouth to say something. Perhaps due to shock or fear, no words came out of the boy's mouth. The other intruder, a boy with messy dark hair, looked just about ready to cry. What drew Duo's gaze though were the boy's golden irises; he stared mesmerized at how the boy's eyes gleamed vividly even in the relative darkness of the room.

"I will not repeat myself. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

For a moment Duo had forgotten Heero was even in the room. He only then just noticed Heero had not lowered his arm. Bemused at the remnants of Heero's 'perfect soldier' training, Duo attempted to broker the conversation. "Are you from around here?" From the facts that were presented to him, Duo arrived at the conclusion that the two intruders were not from around their place; regardless, his question sounded weird when spoken aloud.

The one with light brown hair—Duo had thought he seemed smarter, maybe because of the glasses—jerked his head towards Duo; eyes wide with surprise. In a trembling voice, he asked, "Where is _here_ exactly?"

Without meaning to, the intruder confirmed Duo's hunch. "Well, _here_ is technically Quat's mansion, but I think you meant which planet. We're on L4."

"Duo no baka!" Heero's terse voice caused the two intruders to visibly startle. "Shut up and stop giving out information."

Duo would've rolled his eyes if he thought it served any purpose. "Jeez, 'Ro, it's so obvious they're not even from here."

The confidence in Duo's statement caused Heero to relax his posture a bit, though he continued to point the gun at the two figures huddled inside the armoire. "Explain."

Despite being used to Heero's monosyllabic manner of communication, Duo still found it amusing nevertheless. "This is Quat's mansion, which means it's equipped with the same tight-ass security they probably employ in all their WEI buildings. But yea, I mean no system could be perfect—hell I could break into any of those buildings in my sleep." Duo chuckled lightly but sobered up quickly at the deadly glare from Heero.

"Say they were able to as well—which is absurd really because I think there are very few people who can—then they have to deal with all the Maguanacs patrolling the perimeter _and_ monitoring the interior. I should know because I've broken in on the control room many times—you remember, that prank with Wufei—"

"DUO! Cut to the point."

Amethyst eyes sparkled with mirth. Teasing Heero was one of Duo's favorite pastimes—definitely very high up on his list. "Jeez, 'Ro, did someone spit on your coffee this morning, man?"

A low growl emanated from Heero's throat, and his Prussian-blue eyes glinted with the promise of pain. Duo smiled—he liked to play with fire after all. He was about to say something when a small whimper distracted him. He turned his head, and two pairs of eyes wide with fear stared back. Duo sighed; he'd forgotten about the intruders.

Slightly annoyed at being disturbed, Duo turned back to Heero who was frowning at him. "Fine, fine! What I'm trying to say is, this is a very highly-secured place, which only very few people with exceptional training can get into." Then he motioned with his thumb at the figures inside the armoire. "They don't look like they had those special training."

Heero turned his head to look at the intruders briefly, who stared back at him with palpable fear. He opened his mouth and turned back to say something, but Duo had one hand up, which indicated he was not done with his explanation. Heero sighed but nodded.

Duo grinned at the small victory. "Plus, their clothes—I'd been wondering why they seem so familiar." Heero's face remained impassive, which Duo interpreted as Heero still not recognizing the clothes the intruders were wearing. "Baseball uniforms."

There was only silence as Heero stared at Duo, his face as unchanged as it had been moments before. Duo waited for the realization to sink in, but when it didn't happen, Duo chuckled. "Oh man, are you telling me you've never seen baseball uniforms? Like on TV… or you know, in school?"

Heero frowned—hating the insinuation that he didn't know something that seemed to be general knowledge—and crossed his arms. "There was no need for me to know such things."

Duo snort-laughed. "Sure, man, sure. We'll go with that!"

It happened so fast that Duo didn't have time to react before it was too late. Heero had him pinned to the nearest wall, the back of one arm pressed down on Duo's throat, just enough that it rendered him immobile but still able to breathe. Despite the few inches Duo had on the Japanese soldier, fear licked at his senses. The nearly feral look on Heero's eyes only served to increase the feeling of danger. Duo grinned, unable to keep the want from his voice when he said, "Man, 'Ro, you're so uptight right now, you put Fei-fei to shame."

"Maxwell, stop misusing my name. It's a dishonor to my ancestors!"

Both pilots turned their heads towards the doorway. Chang Wufei stood with his arms crossed and a pinched look on his face. Beside him, Quatre Winner was snickering while Trowa Barton stood stoically, the visible half of his face displayed amusement at the spectacle.

Heero grunted in annoyance—partly at getting caught in a rather embarrassing situation by the others, and partly at the interference. He pinned Duo with a steely gaze—a jolt of white-hot heat seeped into him at the equally dark look in Duo's eyes—and moved back. He turned his gaze once more at the two now-huddled figures in the armoire.

He frowned as he recalled Duo's earlier statement that the two may have come from a place or time outside their own. His thumb ran lightly against the barrel of his gun, though he kept it at his side instead of pointed at the intruders. His eyes roved over the strange clothing—uniforms as Duo said—and noticed the lettering stitched across the front of their chests. "Where is this Seido?"

The dark-skinned boy's head jerked up at the question, and Duo watched with fascination as those golden irises gleamed once more. "Where is Seido? Why are you asking such a stupid—_mmfffphh!_"

Duo snorted at the sharp elbow that hit the dark-skinned boy's side.

"It's in Japan. In Tokyo." The other boy, the smarter-looking one—in Duo's opinion anyway—said.

"Japan?" The surprise was evident in Quatre's voice. Heero turned to him, and they shared a confused look. After a few moments, Quatre asked once more, "Are you sure?"

Duo watched as the boy with light brown hair—glasses-kun, Duo said in his head—nodded even as he glanced back and forth between Heero and Quatre. The was silence, and then the boy cleared his throat, "Why—why is that such a surprise? This is Japan, right?"

Silence descended once more in the room. The pilots looked at one another, as if in silent communication of how to proceed with the situation.

Suddenly another voice from the armoire piped up, "No, the one with the braid said it's L4!"

The was momentary silence, and then the other intruder said, "Idiot! That could just be a code or something."

"No, it's not. He said, _'this planet is L4'_!"

A heavy sigh escaped from the boy with the glasses. "I mean I knew you were an idiot, but I didn't know you're this _much_ of an idiot."

"MIYUKI KAZUYA! Stop saying I'm an idiot!"

With a shake of his head, the light-haired boy chuckled. "There is no planet L4, Sawamura! It's a wonder you're on the team, do you even pay attention to your subjects at school?"

"Yes, there is!"

"There is not!"

"There is, too!"

"Now you're just being a moron!"

"Stop calling me a moron!"

"I'll call you anything I want if you keep saying idiotic things!"

"ENOUGH!" Even Duo startled at the booming voice from the doorway. They all turned to see Wufei with such a pained look on his face. "Dear Nataku, it's like hearing three annoying Duo's all at once!"

Quatre burst out laughing while Trowa tried unsuccessfully to hide the smile on his face. Heero didn't even try to hide the amusement from his voice when he said, "Well, Wufei was on point for once."

"HEY! I resent that—"

"Yuy, what did you mean by that?"

Duo and Wufei simultaneously reacted to Heero's barb, which the latter ignored in favor of addressing the two intruders. "What is the current year?" Blank faces stared back at him. Heero sighed. "The year now. Tell me what year it is now."

The two intruders looked at each other as if trying to confirm what to say. Finally, the dark-skinned one looked back at Heero and said, "2008."

Duo heard Quatre gasp softly by the doorway. Heero inhaled sharply. "2008 what?"

"Huh? What do you mean 2008 what?" The same boy responded to Heero's question, confusion etched on every feature of his face. Heero remained silent; the boy didn't need to say anything more to confirm Duo's ridiculous theory.

"Well, that seems to settle it." Duo's voice startled everyone. He pocketed his gun and put his hands on his waist. "You two can come out of the closet now."

For a moment there was only silence in the room, and then as if spurred on by Duo's friendly demeanor, the two figures started to get out of the cramped armoire. At their full height, Duo could see that both were nearly as tall as Heero.

"Hi, Duo Maxwell at your service. I run, I hide, but I never lie." With a cheeky grin, Duo extended his hand towards the taller one of the two—the one with the light brown hair and glasses.

The other boy looked at him and then at his hand as if weighing the option of accepting the gesture or running away. Duo thought he was mighty suspicious and that made Duo like him instantly. After a few tense moments, the boy held out his hand and grabbed Duo's in a firm handshake. "Miyuki Kazuya… uh… captain of the Seido baseball team."

"Oh! Now I recognize the uniforms! You play baseball!" Quatre sidled up right beside Duo to peer at the two strangers. "Captain! Wow! What position do you play?"

Momentarily taken aback by the enthusiastic response, the boy called Miyuki took a while to reply. "Catcher. I'm the catcher of the team."

Quatre stared at Miyuki and Duo wanted to laugh out loud at the dumbstruck look on the blonde Arabic's face. "He's the one who crouches down at home plate." Duo explained. Quatre only stared at him, his small mouth forming an "o" and Duo threw his head back and laughed, unable to hide his amusement any longer. "Man, Quat, you don't know shit about baseball, do you?"

"Duo! Don't embarrass me in front of our guests!" Quatre chided, and his eyes narrowed down in mock-anger at Duo.

"It's like the goalkeeper in football, _mon petit prince_." Trowa's voice came low and sultry as he approached Quatre from behind, who turned to the tall Frenchman with a warm smile. Duo wanted to gag at the sappy display.

"What about you?" Heero asked the other boy who was eagerly looking at everyone in the room.

"Me? I'm Sawamura Eijun, I'm the team's ace." There was no mistaking the pride in his voice and Duo marveled once more at the sparkle in those golden irises.

"What's an ace?"

Miyuki surprised everyone by bursting out in laughter, which caused his companion, Sawamura, to turn scarlet.

"Stop laughing, Miyuki Kazuya!"

"Idiot, stop saying my full name!" Miyuki snarked back. Then he turned to Heero and said, "He's the pitcher of the team."

"Oh! I know that!" Quatre's voice dripped with excitement. "That's the one who throws the balls, right?"

The dark-skinned boy, Sawamura, nodded vigorously. "Yes, that's me!" Duo was suddenly reminded of those adorable dog videos he used to see in some old pre-colony movies.

"Great! Introductions are over. We should go down and—"

"Wait! We don't know your names!" Sawamura said.

With the threat of violence gone, the atmosphere in the room had clearly lightened. Duo smiled and realized he hadn't introduced the others yet. "Oh, that's right, my bad. This grumpy one here to my right is Heero Yuy aka Perfect Soldier aka Mr. Relena Peace—"

"Uh, I better do the introductions." Quatre cut in after Heero all but growled at Duo. He walked a little closer towards the strangers. "So, you've met Heero and Duo," Quatre paused and waited for Miyuki and Sawamura to acknowledge. He pointed to himself, "My name's Quatre Winner, I own this house. This is Trowa Barton, he used to pilot Heavy Arms," Quatre tugged at Trowa's arm, and the tall Frenchman nodded. "The one behind us by the door is Chang Wufei, the pilot of Shen Long."

"Hold on, pilots?" Disbelief was clearly painted all over Miyuki's face.

"Yes, we were known as Gundam pilots."

"What are Gundam pilots?" Any lingering disbelief as to whether the two of them—Miyuki and Sawamura—were really from another time and place vanished with that earnest question from Sawamura.

"We pilot these machines called—"

"I think that's enough information." Heero cut off Quatre before the latter could say any more. "It's late in the evening. Why don't we let these two rest and we'll ask them more questions tomorrow?"

Even though Duo thought Heero was too cautious—Heero probably still did not fully believe the time travel theory—he let it slide; he can always ask Heero later in private.

They all moved towards the exit when Sawamura stopped and yelled, "Wait! We can't stay here!" Six pairs of eyes turned towards the dark-skinned boy. "We have an important game tomorrow!"

"A game? Cool! Against whom?" Duo asked.

"Yakushi High!" Sawamura enthusiastically replied.

"Oh, yea that's right. You play against other schools, right?"

Sawamura nodded; it was apparent he had thoroughly warmed up to Duo. "How do you know so much about this? Did you use to play in school as well?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly become charged that even Sawamura tensed. Quatre opened his mouth—most likely to change the topic—but Duo beat him to it. "No, no I didn't play in, uh, in school."

Miyuki noticed the change in Duo's demeanor. Among all the strange people they've met that evening, Duo seemed to be the most personable, followed closely by the blonde one—Quatre. However, at that moment, Miyuki felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature in the room; Duo suddenly appeared cold and distant—dangerous. Goosebumps crawled up Miyuki's skin, and he averted his gaze. "We're obviously stuck here for the time being. Let's just retire for the evening."

"But the game—" Sawamura started to protest. Miyuki gave him a look, and the retort died in his throat, though his brows remained furrowed.

Duo watched as Miyuki shuffled forward towards the exit while Sawamura followed closely behind. Just as they were nearly at the door, Miyuki suddenly stopped walking. Duo anticipated that Sawamura would bump into Miyuki, but to his surprise, Sawamura had also stopped walking.

"What's wrong, why have you stopped?" Heero turned from his spot by the doorway and looked at Miyuki and Sawamura, whose faces were blank. Puzzled by this behavior, Heero stepped towards Miyuki, who was nearest to him. All of a sudden, the air around them seemed to whirl.

Both Heero and Duo stepped back, being the two closest to the bizarre phenomenon. They gaped in open surprise as the figures of Miyuki and Sawamura blurred at the edges; it only lasted one second though, because in the next instant, the two disappeared.

No one spoke; every one of them stared at the space previously occupied by Miyuki and Sawamura. It wasn't until they heard a commotion outside that the pilots snapped back to the present.

"Master Quatre, we were looking for you!"

Despite the ordeal they just witnessed, Quatre easily slipped into his business persona. He looked up at the Maguanac, whose chest was still heaving from rushing towards them, "Yes, Ali, what is it?"

"Rashid was worried when he couldn't locate you in your rooms."

Quatre blinked once before saying, "Yes, uh, we wanted to check out something in this room, but it's gone now—I mean it's not here." The Maguanac opened his mouth to say something but Quatre didn't give him a chance. "I feel like having a cup of tea. Why don't we all retire downstairs?"

Trowa murmured his assent, and though Wufei gave one last look towards the room, he quickly followed the two. When Heero and Duo did not immediately follow, Wufei turned and called out to them, "Yuy, Maxwell, are you coming?"

Silence.

Wufei opened his mouth to call out again when Duo's voice floated from inside the room. "Yea, 'Fei, we'll be there shortly."

With a scowl, Wufei moved as if to collect the two, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He looked up and saw Trowa shook his head. Wufei then looked at Quatre, who gave him an imploring look, as if asking him to drop the matter and let Heero and Duo have some time. Wufei shrugged off Trowa's hold and started walking towards the stairs.

Inside the room, Heero and Duo continued to stare at the spot where the two strangers from another time stood moments ago. While the concept of time travel was no longer as ludicrous as it used to sound a century ago—after all, they have achieved inter-planetary travel—it was still primarily a concept which had not had a practical application, at least not a documented one.

"Ne, 'Ro, I didn't imagine the entire thing, right?" Duo's voice sounded uncharacteristically unsure, devoid of its usual bravado and bounce.

Heero looked up from the spot he was staring at. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it. He didn't know what to say. When Duo met his gaze, Heero saw bewilderment and disbelief in the latter's amethyst irises; Heero swallowed and then nodded.

It seemed enough for Duo, who looked down on the spot once more. A low buzzing sound filled the room and Duo's head jerked upwards.

Heero fished the vibrating phone from his pocket and brought it to his ears. "Yuy."

Duo watched as Heero's gaze hardened; Prussian-blue eyes shifted from wild to alert. He figured it was probably a mission. With one last glance at the spot, Duo exhaled and then cracked his neck muscles. Maybe a mission was exactly what they needed right now.

"Mission accepted." Heero ended the call and turned to leave; he didn't have to check to see if Duo was following. The wild look in Duo's eyes tempered after the call; regardless of what they had witnessed that evening, Duo would never compromise a mission.

They were nearly by the stairs when Duo spoke up. "Time travel, huh? Neat."

Heero grunted; his response neither an agreement nor a dismissal.

Duo seemed unfazed. "Where would you go if you could travel in time, 'Ro?"

The question floored Heero, and he stopped walking. A heaviness settled inside him at the possibilities and implications of that question.

Before he could respond, Duo chuckled. "Man, I was just thinking aloud, ya know?" Then Duo slung one arm around Heero's neck, "Let's go crash Quat's little tea party."

Heero shook his head, quite used to the rapid shifts in the braided pilot's moods. As they began walking once more, Heero realized Duo never offered an answer to his own question. Then again, Heero didn't need to ask. Unlike Heero, Duo would only ever consider one response: the Maxwell orphanage fire.

_Somewhere in the present time…_

It was nearly dusk, the sun setting low over the horizon in the distance. Furuya and Haruichi, each burdened with a crate of baseballs, were walking towards the storage shed. A few meters behind, Kuramochi followed with a box of bats, gloves, and helmets. As they neared the storage shed, they heard a commotion coming from inside. Furuya and Haruichi immediately stopped walking.

Brows furrowed and concerned that someone had trespassed into their shed, Kuramochi quickly put down the box he was carrying and hurriedly approached the shed. As he came closer, the sounds of what seemed like people bumping into each other or into things became louder. Kuramochi could make out voices although the sounds were muffled.

Kuramochi decided to act quickly; he reached forward and yanked the door open. It took a while to process what he was seeing.

On the floor lay Sawamura, who stared back up at Kuramochi, golden eyes lit with fire and cheeks flushed red. Straddling him was Miyuki, who also stared back at Kuramochi, his hair in disarray and his glasses askew atop his nose. Both had guilty looks on their faces.

"Kuramochi-senpai, what is it?"

The sound spurred the two figures inside the shed into action. Miyuki quickly stood up and backed away; while Sawamura crawled backward and attempted to get up on his feet.

The look on Kuramochi's face caused Miyuki to blurt out, "It's not what you think." He ran a hand through his hair and tried to find the words to explain what they had just gone through earlier that evening. "It's uh—something happened and—"

"It's true, Kuramochi-senpai. One moment we were here and then the next we were somewhere else—"

"—pilots, but not the ones on planes. It seemed more dangerous—"

"—pointed guns at us. I was so scared that—"

The sudden cacophony of voices irritated Kuramochi's ears. "STOP!" He bellowed, a little too loudly maybe. Miyuki and Sawamura both froze. Kuramochi sighed. "I really don't care what you two do on your spare time—"

"I told you it wasn't like—"

Kuramochi shot Miyuki a look, which quickly silenced the latter. "—like I said, I don't care. But there's a game tomorrow, and we all need to rest. Now."

Sawamura opened his mouth to retort, but after a dark glare from Kuramochi, he closed his mouth. He glanced at Miyuki, who shook his head and then looked away. Despite the lingering confusion, Sawamura decided the game tomorrow was more important. He exited the shed and walked past Kuramochi without saying anything further.

Outside, Miyuki heard other voices—it sounded like Furuya and Haruichi—mixed in with Sawamura's. He sighed and moved to leave as well. As he passed Kuramochi by the door, he heard soft chuckling coming from their shortstop. Miyuki turned and with one eyebrow raised, waited for Kuramochi to explain himself.

"I mean, I really don't care… but couldn't you have chosen a more suitable place to, uh, make your advances towards Sawamura? The shed and the hard floor aren't exactly romantic."

Miyuki blushed red, and he opened his mouth to say something but Kuramochi had moved away.

"Whatever, I really don't care. Just make sure we win tomorrow because otherwise, I'm blaming you if Sawamura isn't at his 100%."

He watched as Kuramochi continued walking until he caught up with the first-year trio. Miyuki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This evening had been nothing but a disaster. Exhausted, he locked the shed and followed the others back to the dorms.


End file.
